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Your cart is empty.In 1922, mandolin designs began to change, as did the musical tastes of the time. The greatest Acoustic Engineer of the day began to develop designs that incorporated F shaped sound holes instead of the Oval holes designs that ultimately tightened-up the airy, woody nature of the traditional A shape and accentuated the treble frequencies, often lacking in previous Oval hole designs. All combined the KM-252 with a transparent amber finish offers the musician better balance and greater volume to meet the ever changing musical styles to come.
Paul Donnelly
August 28, 2025
I purchased this from Amazon and it came already set up, just had to tune and play. I later realized that the bridge was slightly out of alignment and had to loosen strings to nudge bridge into place so that the E strings aligned over the fretboard. Fit and finish is quite good as is the tone and sound. the action (height of strings over the fret board) was also well adjusted for immediate playing. The nut securing the fingerboard/pickguard was loose and drove me nuts (ha ha) until I got a tiny wrench and secured it properly. Nice instrument for mass production in China. I will get many years of enjoyment from this and do recommend. If you want to spend a few more bucks, check out the Calhoun from Northfield Mandolins for around $800. One final comment to the seller (saga), it's difficult to tease out the differences between the various Kentucky models. Some help with comparing them would be a value add. thanks
Grace
August 11, 2025
I bought this for my son, a struggling, yet enthusiastic musician. This was purchased to replace an electric mandolin I purchased a few years ago that really was a disappointment.Knowing how flat the last one sounded, I spent two months researching and comparing various makes of the mandolin.I was originally deflated by the pricing of some of these instruments, until I found this Kentucky mandolin.This mandolin's tone is so incredibly warm, my son fell in love within minutes of playing it. It's a great entry level, yet professional sounding instrument. If you cannot afford a $5000 instrument, but want that rich tone, this is the mandolin you need to buy.
e-i-s
July 14, 2025
Came in pieces – I had to do a full set up and glue things. The pickguard snapped off from the fastening bolt and had to be glued back. Strings were old and corroded so that also had to be replaced. High frets (14+) have rough edges and some haven't been fully set into the fingerboard and protrude making it possible to get a scratch on your fingers.At least the thing looks and sounds nice. I'm keeping it but in other circumstance it would've gone back immediately. I do not recommend you buy one of these, at least not of off amazon.
Joshua JZ
July 5, 2025
They listed these mandolins as being fully setup and finished. Well half of that is true. Mine did come with strings attached but the bridge had to be put on. That's no big deal to me but to someone who doesn't know about setup would have trouble especially with getting the action set right and the intonation. Also after further inspection I received a mandolin that had obvious finish flaws. There is dents and bumps galore on the top which isn't appealing. Next the pick guard was all tore up! Scratches and even looking closer the pick guard wasn't even finished. Moving up the neck the tuning instrument wasn't correctly installed nor the bone nut. Overall it is a good sounding instrument which is why I gave it three stars. I have photographs of all this, if you would look to see them I would be happy to send them to your email. This will more than likely be going back because of the finish flaws and lack of attention by the builders there in Korea.
The Unibobber
June 29, 2025
First impression? Awesome! I am extremely happy with this Kentucky Mandolin KM-256, in transparent brown. The wood grain and finish is beautiful, much more so than the Amazon photos. The back is beautiful flamed maple. It’s so glossy, it’s hard to get good pics without a lot of reflection. The brown color is not dull, it really pops.It also came with the beautiful tan “Kentucky†backpack gig bag, which I wasn’t expecting. The hard case in my photos was purchased separately, which I wouldn’t have purchased if i’d known the gig bag was included.It came set up, with strings detuned. Upon tuning, i broke both of the E strings. I guess I rushed it? Fortunately I already had more strings on hand, which came up to tune no problem.Tone and playability seems great, but I just got it tuned up last night, so i need to play it more before giving a detailed review on that. But there’s no dead spots anywhere on the fingerboard. Frets are a little sharp on the ends, which I expected.Overall it seems like a great value especially at this price point.I Highly recommend. I am not an advanced Mandolin player, but I’ve been playing guitar, banjo, fiddle, etc. for nearly 60 years and I can recognize and appreciate a quality instrument for an affordable price. This seems like a winner to me.
Paulette McAloon
June 12, 2025
Mandolin arrived today. So excited to open the box only to find dis colored strings. Not happy about setting it up but did start the process. went to put the strap on and the peg fell out. Its going back tomorrow. So disappointed...totally not worth $500.
B D M
May 12, 2025
The mandolin is a fragile instrument and I was worried about the condition it would arrive in. It was packed very well and arrived without harm. This is a great quality beginner mandolin at a great price. The bridge and strings are on loose and the bridge is easy to set in place. The intonation and action are perfect.
dot
March 7, 2025
Love it! Nice tone and seems to be set up perfectly, plus I got a good price. Easy to play. I'm replacing my first mandolin that was hard to play. Makes playing more enjoyable even though I am still learning.
Customer
December 26, 2024
Excellent mandolin, leather gig bag also very high quality. Great choice for a starter.
Albert
November 12, 2024
This is a nice entry level mandolin by Kentucky . Came with case , already set up at the factory and plays easily . For me the sound left a bit to be desired. Quite thin on the bottom end ( yes....this is a characteristics of mandolins but this one seemed more-so ...possibly just THIS particular instrument ). Beautiful , quality build , IMO , but I returned it due to its thinner sound. BTW ...watch for huge price fluctuations on this and other Kentucky mandolins here on Amazon CA . They can drop to nearly half list in one day and back up just as quickly . VERY frustrating if you purchase at full price .
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